Obituary News

Bluesman Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown dies

Source: All About Jazz
September 12, 2005

Weakened by lung cancer and heart disease and devastated by the destruction of his beloved New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, Grammy Award-winning singer and guitarist Clarence “Gatemouth" Brown died on Saturday. He was 81.

Brown died at his brother's home in Orange, Texas, where he had gone to escape the hurricane. His home in Slidell, La., just outside New Orleans, was destroyed by Katrina, said Rick Cady, his agent.

“He was completely devastated," Cady said. “... He evacuated successfully before ...

Continue Reading...

Bluesman R.L. Burnside dies at 79

Source: All About Jazz
September 1, 2005

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Blues artist R.L. Burnside, who redefined the blues genre by incorporating indie rock acts and hip-hop production, died September 1, 2005, at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 79.

Burnside was born November 21, 1926, in Harmontown, Mississippi, and spent most of his life in the north Mississippi hill country, where he worked as a sharecropper and a commercial fisherman and played guitar at weekend house parties. In 1968, noted folklorist George Mitchell recorded Burnside ...

Continue Reading...

Dutch piano player Glenn Corneille (35) dies in car accident

Source: All About Jazz
August 25, 2005

Continue Reading...

Synthesizer innovator Robert Moog dies at 71

Source: All About Jazz
August 22, 2005

RALEIGH, N.C. - Robert A. Moog, whose self-named synthesizers turned electric currents into sound, revolutionizing music in the 1960s and opening the wave that became electronica, has died. He was 71.

Moog died Sunday at his home in Asheville, N.C., according to his company's website. An inoperable brain tumour had been detected in April.

A childhood interest in the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments, would led Moog to create a business that tied the name Moog as ...

Continue Reading...

Synthesizer Innovator Robert A. Moog Dies

Source: All About Jazz
August 22, 2005

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Robert A. Moog, whose self-named synthesizers turned electric currents into sound and opened the musical wave that became electronica, has died. He was 71. Moog died Sunday at his home in Asheville (NC), according to his company's Web site. He had suffered from an inoperable brain tumor, detected in April. A childhood interest in the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments, would lead Moog to a create a career and business that tied the ...

Continue Reading...

Joyce Wein: Wife, business partner of George Wein

Source: All About Jazz
August 17, 2005

Joyce Wein, wife and business partner of jazz impresario George Wein, died Monday, August 15, at New York Presbyterian Hospital following a battle with cancer. She was 76.

Joyce Alexander Wein was born in October 21, 1928, in Boston, Massachusetts, the sixth of seven children of Columbia and Hayes Alexander. Her mother was the youngest of thirteen children, two of whom were born into slavery. Joyce attended Girls Latin School and at the age of 15, entered Simmons College, where ...

Continue Reading...

Violinst Vassar Clements dies at 77

Source: All About Jazz
August 16, 2005

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Vassar Clements, a fiddle virtuoso and A-list studio musician who played with Paul McCartney and an array of other music legends, died at his home Tuesday after battling lung cancer. He was 77.

Clements was hospitalized for 18 days earlier this year, receiving chemotherapy and other treatment. He had been under hospice care in recent weeks.

“He had no quality of life since he'd been diagnosed," said daughter Midge Cranor, who added that the cancer had spread ...

Continue Reading...

Joyce Wein, wife of George Wein, dies at 76

Source: All About Jazz
August 16, 2005

NEW YORK (AP) — Joyce Wein, a former biochemist, a founder of the New York Coalition of 100 Black Women and a key adviser to her husband, who was a creator of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, has died. She was 76.

The wife and business partner of jazz impresario George Wein died of cancer Monday at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center in Manhattan, family spokeswoman Sue Auclair said in a statement.

A 1948 graduate of Simmons ...

Continue Reading...